Netflix's "Mr. McMahon" Was Great -- But There Were Some Bad Omissions - "Paltrocast" Exclusive

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As a fan of professional wrestling for more of my life than not, I was excited about Netflix's six-part Mr. McMahon series ever since it was announced. Once it was came out earlier this week, I was unfortunately inundated with messages from fellow wrestling fan-friends who were severely disappointed with Mr. McMahon. "We've seen this all before." "There is nothing new here." "The editing is unfair." "This is a hit piece."

Watching the first episode on September 27th and the other five episodes the following day, I was glad to approach this series with low expectations. Why? Because I wound up loving it. No one is going to come away from Mr. McMahon with a changed opinion -- prepare to hate Vince McMahon more if you had previously hated him -- but it was an entertaining presentation, aiming to combine 50+ years of history and 2020s-era exclusive footage into a six-hour presentation.

As comprehensive as Mr. McMahon aimed to be, if it is aiming to be the definitive history of Vince McMahon and the WWE, it is missing some key figures. Sure, maybe they were in the background of some archival footage, but they were not named or focused upon. Below is a short list of some of these individuals who absolutely played a role within the life of McMahon and overall history of WWE, and hopefully this article helps preserve some of that history.

And those who want to learn even more about Vince McMahon and/or the WWE best read the 2023 biography of McMahon penned by Abraham Josephine Reisman, which you can learn more about by clicking here.

Antonio Inoki

Close to a decade before Vince McMahon conceptualized WrestleMania -- more on that later -- he was a promoter on a (worked) match between Muhammad Ali and Japanese wrestling legend Antonio Inoki. McMahon attempted to have this aired via closed-circuit television, which he later did for WrestleMania, and supposedly lose a fortune doing this. And speaking of Japan, Mr. McMahon mentions Hulk Hogan's past in AWA, but avoids what a big star he was in Japan prior to Hulkamania.

Black Saturday

Mr. McMahon was full of content related to Vince McMahon's long-term war with Ted Turner, and how they both thrived on cable television within American cable's early days. But nothing in there about "Black Saturday," which was substantial enough to have its own Dark Side Of The Ring episode. This preceded the first WrestleMania and was one of McMahon's first big financial plays.

Vince Russo

These days Vince Russo is one of the world's top wrestling-related podcasters. That success as a podcaster is based on Russo's history as a lead writer behind the scenes for WWF, WCW and TNA; his WWF tenure preceded WWF having teams of writers. Meaning, Russo was there for -- and somewhat or fully responsible for -- a lot of key moments within the Attitude Era, which contradicts the docuseries' emphasis on McMahon coming up with all of the ideas. I only recall seeing a glimse of Russo during a clip of WCW in its later days.

Monday Night Raw

Mr. McMahon spends a lot of time on the Monday Night Wars and the WWE's relationship with the USA Network. However, the launch of Monday Night Raw in January 1993 was substantial in WWF's overall growth and expansion. Nothing about the launch of Raw, nor nothing I recall about WWE being on Fox, SyFy, TNN or other American networks; I would have thought that Netflix would spotlight the upcoming move of Raw to Netflix as part of the series.

Jim Johnston

Briefly during the Attitude Era section, we hear about how WWF was so big that even its music was selling. But the reality is that WWF released two albums of original music in the 1980s, and that a lot of its wrestlers had theme songs which you can still stream today. A lot of that music was helmed by Jim Johnston, including themes by The Undertaker, The Rock and Brock Lesnar; JJ Maguire and Jimmy Hart also were responsible for a lot of WWF themes. But without Jim Johnston's music for many of these performers, would such strong reactions to wrestlers heading to the ring have happened?

Jerry S. McDevitt

A main focus of Mr. McMahon is on his legal troubles over the years. The man known for resolving most -- if not all -- of them? Jerry McDevitt, who reportedly retired in 2023. Did his retirement have anything to do with what may have been coming for McMahon? We can only speculate.

Yokozuna

Multiple performers who were feuding with Yokozuna received a lot of screen time (e.g. Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger, The Undertaker, Bret Hart) and briefly we heard about The Rock's grandfather being the first notable Samoan in-ring performer. But nothing about Yokozuna, the two-time WWF Champion, who was the first wrestler of Samoan descent to be the World Champion of WWF.

Ohio Valley Wrestling

One of the key developmental territories for WWE, OVW remains based in Louisville, as led by Al Snow and recently spotlighted via the Netflix series Wrestlers. I don't recall any mentions of WWE developmental -- beyond it being referenced that McMahon thought all of wrestling companies being a "feeder system" to WWE -- but we did hear a lot about some of its notable alumni, including John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista and Brock Lesnar. Again, some of that Netflix synergy could have been applied.

Jim Ross

"Good 'Ol J.R." is/was not only one of the best wrestling announcers of all time, but was also instrumental in signing and handling talent for WWE as head of Talent Relations for seven years. This includes signing The Rock, John Cena, Edge and The Hardy Boyz. As much of a creative genius Vince McMahon is/was, he needed the performers to dictate that creative to.

Tod Gordon

ECW is a very short part of Mr. McMahon, as mainly spotlighted during the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin part. ECW is portrayed as the creation of Paul Heyman, who regularly pops up in the docu-series. But check out Tod Gordon's recent memoir Tod is God: The Authorized Story Of How I Created Extreme Championship Wrestling Book, as co-penned by Sean Oliver. That title of that excellent book says a lot. Oh, and Mr. McMahon entirely skips over Austin's initial WWF run as The Ringmaster.

Bill Apter

Having been described as "The World's Most Recognizable Pro Wrestling Print Media Personality," Bill Apter holds the distinction of working around wrestling under Vince Sr., Vince Jr. and the modern era. Apter has been documented as helping get Andy Kaufman involved within the wrestling business, which supposedly was offered to Vince Sr. prior to Kaufman finding his way to Memphis. Apter not only was around for a lot of key moments in WWE history, but also has an archive of photos and interviews to offer up.

Kevin Dunn

A WWE employee for over 40 years, WWE television looked like it did because of Kevin Dunn. He was arguably at the center of WWE's production and presentation for decades. He was also an Executive Producer on outside WWE-affiliated projects like Total Divas and WWE's Most Wanted Treasures.

Howard Finkel

According to Mr. McMahon, Vince McMahon himself thought of the name "WrestleMania" while on a two-day Caribbean vacation. Not so, per history. That one was helmed by ring announcer Howard Finkel, who sadly passed away in 2020. Finkel was a memorable part of Legends House a few years before his passing and in the early 2000s had a fun feud with fellow ring announced Lilian Garcia.

USWA Mr. McMahon

According to Mr. McMahon, the evil Mr. McMahon character came as a result of the Montreal Screwjob. Well, an early version of that character appeared on weekly television for USWA, a developmental territory for WWF. That same highly-underrated USWA archive includes matches from Bret Hart, Randy Savage, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker and Lex Luger, since the USWA had a talent exchange with the WWF.